A Baptist Abroad: Travels and Adventures of Europe and all Bible LandsWhittle, Walter Andrew
Religion
A Baptist Abroad: Travels and Adventures of Europe and all Bible Lands
Whittle, Walter Andrew
Europe -- Description and travel; Middle East -- Description and travel
in the long history of Ephesus.
At this juncture, the silversmiths, who made shrines for the Temple
of Diana, and the other heathen temples of Ephesus, came together
and decided that something had to be done to break up the protracted
meeting. They said that if Christ continued to be preached, and
Christianity to spread, men would cease to bow down to shrines, to
stocks and stones, and then their craft would be gone and the temple of
“Diana despised.” Then the excitement became intense, “The whole city
was filled with confusion.” Some, therefore, cried one thing, and some
another. For two hours all with one voice shouted: “Great is Diana of
the Ephesians.”
For the benefit of those who have so much business to attend to, or who
have so many newspapers to read, that they habitually neglect the the
Bible, I will add in conclusion that the Baptist preacher who conducted
this revival was Paul, the Apostle (Acts xviii and xix). According to
tradition, the same Apostle was imprisoned here, and the cell in which
he is said to have been confined is still pointed out.
The church at Ephesus is the first one mentioned in Revelation (ii:
1-8). John is believed to have retired to Ephesus after his release
from banishment to Patmos, and thither the Virgin Mary came to reside
with the beloved disciple. Here, says tradition, both of them died and
were buried. Their tombs are still shown to the traveler; so, also, is
the tomb of Timothy. Near by these graves is the celebrated Cave of the
Seven Sleepers.
This once fair and populous city is now nothing more than a lonely,
desolate, bleak, and barren heap of ruins. By the remaining aqueducts,
foundation stones, archways, broken pillars, and marble columns, the
tourist can recognize the location of some of the temples, theatres and
public buildings. These have recently been excavated by Captain Wood,
of England.
Returning to Smyrna, I immediately come aboard the good ship “Mars.”
She at once lifts her anchors, and spreads her sails to the breezes;
and soon Smyrna, like Ephesus, Constantinople, and Athens, is among the
places that “I have left behind.” The first landing is Chios (Acts xx:
15;) then passing by Samos we come next morning, about eight o’clock,
to the island of Patmos, known throughout Christendom as the exiled
home of the Beloved Disciple. The island is a solid and irregular mass
of rock, bleak and barren. It is ten miles long, and five miles in
breadth. The cave, or grotto, in which John is said to have written
the Apocalypse is used as a chapel. In this chapel, numerous lights
are kept burning, and on its walls are rudely depicted various scenes
taken from the Apocalypse. Patmos is now inhabited by 4,000 Greeks, who
have two sources of income. One is fishing, while their second main
occupation is stealing.
[Illustration: ISLAND OF PATMOS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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